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Spitzer Calls for Nonpartisan Districting

ALBANY, Nov. 21 - Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said Monday that if elected governor he will end a practice that many say is at the root of Albany's dysfunctional government: the power of state lawmakers to draw legislative districts so that incumbents are perennially re-elected.

Mr. Spitzer, a Democrat, called the current system "a classic conflict of interest" and said that as governor he would push for a nonpartisan commission to draw district lines. If the Legislature did not agree to such a change, he pledged that he would veto the next set of district lines established unless the boundaries were "reflective of democracy, not incumbent protection."

Mr. Spitzer made the pledge after delivering a speech here in which he called for a broad series of changes to state government, including imposing stricter campaign finance rules and reducing the role of party politics in choosing judges. He has been attacked by Republicans and by potential rivals for lavishing more attention on his high-profile Wall Street investigations than on a state government that many say is rife with problems.

Mr. Spitzer made an analogy to his investigations of the financial sector, saying that what happened on Wall Street could happen on State Street, which is the address of the State Capitol and many big lobbying firms here. And he extended the analogy to describe his call for nonpartisan districting. "Ultimately, competition in the polling place is every bit as important as competition in the marketplace," Mr. Spitzer said at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government.

But districting is one of the most cherished powers in Albany. Currently, the Democratic-led Assembly draws the lines for Assembly districts and the Republican-led Senate draws the lines for Senate districts. Because of what critics call artful cartography, and some unusually shaped districts that critics say are drawn to benefit incumbents, neither house has changed hands in decades. And officials in both parties say districting has been vital to Senate Republicans, who have retained their majority even as Democratic voter registration has become stronger.

Sometimes, critics say, the districts have been drawn to stifle the aspirations of specific candidates. A Democrat who had made an unusually strong run against former State Senator Guy J. Velella, a Republican, found her house excluded from his district when the lines were redrawn in 2002. So did a candidate who had made a strong showing in a Democratic primary against Assemblyman Roger L. Green. (Mr. Velella later resigned after pleading guilty to bribery-related charges; Mr. Green resigned, but was later re-elected, after pleading guilty to billing the state for fake travel expenses.)

The next round of districting is not scheduled until after the 2010 census, which makes Mr. Spitzer's pledge to veto politically motivated districts a rare case of an aspirant for higher office fast-forwarding to talk of his plans for not just a first term but also a second one.

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Mr. Spitzer called for a wide range of changes to government in his speech, including changing the State Constitution to limit how much debt the state can take on, banning people who do business with the state from making political contributions, lowering campaign contribution limits, beginning the public financing of state elections and replacing the election of many judges with appointments based on merit.

He made the speech as officials said it appeared ever more likely that he would face a Democratic primary challenge from Tom Suozzi, the Nassau County executive, who traveled the state last year on his own "Fix Albany" campaign to try force changes in state government. And it comes as Republicans sift through a handful of potential candidates, including several who could run as Albany outsiders.

Mr. Spitzer's call to end unusually shaped districts, known as gerrymandering, drew a muted reaction from the Democratic-led Assembly, where a bill to create a nonpartisan districting commission never made it out of committee this year. Charles Carrier, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, said the issue would be discussed "as part of our ongoing conversation on reform."

And John E. McArdle, a spokesman for the Republican majority in the Senate, observed that the state's past districting plans had been done in accordance with the law and survived challenges in state and federal courts. He questioned why Mr. Spitzer, who took office seven years ago, had not weighed in until now. "I think he was attorney general the last time the lines were approved," he said.

Darren Dopp, a spokesman for Mr. Spitzer, said that as attorney general Mr. Spitzer was constrained by his job as the lawyer charged with defending the state and its laws. "If he gets a new job, things would be different," he said.